Case Studies

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Absence Management - HCM 8.9 Implementation
Business Process Modernization Project: Financial Operations and Supply Chain Management
PeopleSoft HCM 8.9, Absence Mangement

The Challenge

As one of the largest construction and mining organizations in North America needed an enterprise-wide system capable of standardizing the Absence Management process across all business locations. The organization needed a solution that would effectively record an employee's leave transaction and integrate it with their existing PeopleSoft Payroll, Benefits Administration and Time & Labor modules.

Prior to approaching BTRG, the corporation was experiencing several
problems handling its Absence Management business processes:

• Had been recording absences on Excel spreadsheets
• Reports were being submitted to Payroll for processing
• Employees' leave accrual entitlement was carried on an Excel spreadsheet
• There was minimal standardization of leave policies between Business Units

In addition, reconciliation was a time consuming manual process. Line managers at different locations needed reports that would allow them to forecast absences and allow better planning of their resource needs.

The Solution

Looking to BTRG to assist them with their implementation of PeopleSoft's 8.9 Absence Management module. The solution would standardize their business processes while leveraging and incorporating best practices. The team needed to integrate this solution within their existing PS Global HR/Payroll infrastructure. The implementation was broken down into multiple stages:

1. Standardize Leave Plan Policies
2. Build the Leave Plans and Rules
3. Test & Roll-out Employee and Manager Self-Service
4. Test this on a Core Group of End-Users
5. Roll-out the solution in phases

From Fit/Gap to Implementation

In order to accomplish these objectives, we needed to fully understand the company's leave policies. BTRG worked with thier Project Team to identify the different absence "takes" and "entitlements" needed to be established within the system. Our Solution took advantage of the delivered PS Absence Management Architecture and Integration Points, developing different formulas for all absence requirements. Further evaluation efforts identified the need to track absence balances within the PeopleSoft system until the solution went live in 2008. This resulted in a smooth data load from within the PeopleSoft system with less of a dependency and secondary data stores.

In addition, they leveraged the forecasting functionality provided within PeopleSoft's Absence Management. This resulted in a better reporting capability available for managers to approve or deny direct-report absence requests. BTRG also helped design custom reports that helped users
better understand their employees and track balances. This all resulted in cleaner data - without spreadsheets - and freed up time for much-needed HR and Payroll resources.

Manager & Employee Self Service Rollout

BTRG worked with the company's project team to implement Absence Management for two groups of workers: employees who were on 3rd party system, and mining employees who had complex work schedules. It identified opportunities to link PeopleSoft Absence Management with their existing Portal environment. Employee Self Service was deployed to allow better management of employee time off. Employees could now view their own balances and submit leave requests. Managers now had insight into their direct and indirect reports. This new Self Service functionality provided the Payroll Staff with less work up front and more timely information on transactions that required immediate intervention.

The Results

This project added new functionality to the company's existing HCM application and affected 6,800 self-service employees across North America. It was rolled out in phases by Business Unit in less than 8 months and surpassed the established objectives defined within the initial scope. Implementing Absence Management enabled employees to report their own Absences in PeopleSoft. This eliminated the need to submit requests via email and record those requests in Excel spreadsheets. The new process standardized thier corporate leave policies and enforced industry best practices. In addition, by utilizing employee self-service and manager self-service, they greatly streamlined their processes and reduced errors caused by inbound file feeds to the payroll systems for recording time. The improved process flow and reporting functionality enhanced the data that was recorded within the existing PeopleSoft system, giving line managers the ability to forecast absences and plan accordingly. For more information about BTRG or our HCM Implementation and Upgrade Solutions, contact us at 877- 287-4462 or info@btrgroup.com.